U.S. Tracked Suspected Chinese Spy Balloon Over America This Week

Incident comes days before Secretary of State Blinken set to travel to China

The U.S. tracked what officials described as a Chinese reconnaissance balloon over the continental U.S. this week, in what would be an aggressive act of intelligence gathering over sensitive U.S. national security sites.

The balloon sighting came days before Secretary of State Antony Blinken was to travel to the Chinese capital. It was unknown whether that trip, part of an effort to stabilize the two powers’ acrimonious relations, would go forward.

The incident, which occurred in the last two days, marked the latest aggressive Chinese intelligence gathering maneuvers in recent years. U.S. defense officials said the balloon loitered over the U.S. longer than in previous similar incidents, which made this “different.”

One U.S. official said China has previously sent high-altitude surveillance balloons over the continental United States. “It’s pretty low risk for them,” the official said.

A U.S. official told The Wall Street Journal that the State Department summoned the senior-most Chinese Embassy official “to deliver a very clear and stark message.”

The U.S. “has detected and is tracking a high altitude surveillance balloon that is over the continental United States right now,” Gen. Ryder said. “We continue to track and monitor it closely. Once the balloon was detected the U.S. government acted immediately to protect against the collection of sensitive information.”

A senior Defense official said that the balloon had “limited additive value” beyond what the Chinese could gather from their low earth orbiting satellites.

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